The present invention relates generally to personal digital assistants and, more particularly, to a system and method for synchronizing data among a plurality of different personal digital assistants over a wide area network.
Personal digital assistants, or PDA""s, are commonly known hand-held computers that can be used to store various personal information including, but not limited to contact information, calendar information, etc. Such information can be downloaded from other computer systems, or can be inputted by way of a stylus and pressure sensitive screen of the PDA. Examples of PDA""s are the Palm(trademark) computer of 3Com Corporation, and Microsoft CE(trademark) computers which are each available from a variety of vendors.
Users of PDA""s commonly do not rely solely on such units for storing important information. For example, full-size desktop computers are also used to store information during the course of other activities such as receiving and responding to electronic mail. This tends to lead to the generation of separate and discrete sets of information on both the PDA and desktop computer. Of course, maintaining multiple sets of information is undesirable due to obvious organization problems.
To overcome this difficulty, information on a desktop computer is often xe2x80x9csynchronizedxe2x80x9d with information on a PDA. In other words, any new information in the form of additions, deletions, and/or changes that exists on either the desktop computer or the PDA is reflected on both. By frequently synchronizing data between the desktop computer and the PDA, a user is ensured to have one set of completely updated information which leads to increased organization.
One issue that is not fully addressed in prior art PDA""s is synchronizing data between PDA""s of different users. While the PDA of a first user may properly reflect the contact information of a person, i.e. John Doe, a second user may have John Doe""s previous, incorrect contact information, thereby reflecting a lack of synchronization. Moreover, many complications can arise due to conflicting scheduled events and meetings. For example, calendar software of the Palm(trademark) PDA only allows a single calendar to be used.
Such lack of organization is primarily caused by the lack of shared information among PDA""s of different users. Up to now, focus has been only on promoting organization of a single user by way of synchronization between a PDA, a desktop computer, and a remote server.
There is thus a need for a system and method for synchronizing data between a plurality of different PDA""s to promote organization among multiple different users.
A system and method are provided for sharing data among a plurality of users. Included are a plurality of personal digital assistants, or PDA""s, each suitable for storing a plurality of personal data sets thereon. Associated therewith is a server including a plurality of server data sets stored thereon. A communication link between the PDA""s and the server is adapted for synchronizing the server data sets with the personal data sets in order to obtain the personal data set of one PDA on another PDA, thereby synchronizing the personal data sets between different PDA""s.
The personal data sets of each of the PDA""s have personal identification codes assigned thereto and the server data sets of the server have server identification codes assigned thereto. A map correlating the personal identification codes and the server identification codes is stored on at least one of the PDA""s, the server, and a computer in which the communication link is resident for identification purposes during synchronization of the personal data sets and the server data sets.
In one embodiment, the types of personal data that may be stored on the PDA include contact and calendar information. During synchronization, both the contact information and calendar information may be exchanged between different PDA""s. For example, contact information may be updated on multiple different PDA""s, calendar information of a plurality of PDA""s may be synchronized and conflicts may be addressed, and/or calendar information of a plurality of users may be stored and updated on each PDA.
In another embodiment, the communication link, or conduit, is resident in a client computer and is connected to a server via a network. Specifically, the conduit may be used to interface both a local memory of the client computer and the server. Upon a connection being established between the client computer and the server, synchronization is executed. If, however, it is impossible for such connection to be established, a local copy of the synchronization may be stored on the local memory of the client computer to be synchronized with the server at a later time.
In still yet another embodiment, the synchronization of the personal data of different PDA""s only occurs on personal data specifically marked to be shared. By requiring the personal data to be marked as shared, privacy concerns are addressed and the user is granted selectivity with respect to who receives personal data.
In yet another embodiment, conflicts between shared personal data are addressed with various methods. It should be noted that a conflict occurs when particular personal data of a first PDA is synchronized with the server data before similar shared personal data of a second PDA is synchronized with the server data.
In order to deal with such conflicts, the present invention provides a resolution by replicating the particular conflicted personal data as a separate file. In the alternative, the conflict may be resolved by synchronizing the particular personal data of the second PDA with the server data, thereby overriding the personal data of the first PDA. In still yet another embodiment, the conflict may be resolved by not synchronizing the particular personal data of the second PDA with the server data, thereby being overridden by the personal data of the first PDA. Finally, the conflict may be resolved by marking the particular personal data of the second PDA to be altered by a user via a user interface.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and studying the various figures of the drawings.